Cookie Magic, From Our Pizzelle To Yours

First of all, if you have never heard of Pizzelles, they are yummy, wafer-thin, super-festive Italian cookies.

I have great fun making Pizzelles with my 3 great nieces at Christmas time, and if you’ve never given these easy cookies a try, there’s no time like the present!Pizzelle Irons run about $20 - $25 dollars, and it’s such a simple process to make all kinds of different flavors: lemon, vanilla, anise (traditional), chocolate, raspberry. And you know what the best part is? You and your family can make just about any desert flavor you might enjoy.

We also love to add food coloring and make them all sorts of festive colors. After making the cookies, we get chocolate and vanilla frosting and really go to town--nothing like a sugar explosion to get your holiday season off to the best start possible! Some of the Pizzelles are made flat so we can sprinkle them with powdered sugar, and some we roll up into cookie “tubes” so we can squirt yummy frosting (all different colors of course) right into the center.

If you have a tradition of making cookies at your house during Christmas time--and especially if you have kids that like to help--I suggest you add these Pizzelles to the holiday baking assortments. Just a disclaimer: this may be an activity for older children as the Pizzelle Maker gets super hot (enough to bake the cookies).

This is a very basic recipe that came with my Pizzelle Iron I bought years ago, but you can also find all kinds of variations of this recipes on the web!

Beat the eggs and sugar until fluffy (electric mixer works best). Stir in butter and flavoring extract.

Combine dry ingredients and stir into eggs and butter gradually.

Preheat your pizzelle iron (instructions on how to do so should have come with your iron). Drop a rounded teaspoon onto the center of the patterns on the iron, close the lid and cook for about 30 seconds. Cooking time will vary with each iron.

Remove the cookies and place on wire racks to cool. If you choose to sprinkle powdered sugar on them, do so right away, as the sugar sticks better to hot cookies. If you choose to roll the cookies into tubes, you will need to do this immediately as well, as the cookies are much more easy to maneuver when hot. Then, wait until the rolled cookies are completely cool to fill them with frosting!

Last step: arrange your beautiful assortment of Pizzelles on a Christmas plate and enjoy!